HS2 helps keep WS Atkins on the rails
CIVIL engineering consultant WS Atkins has said its trading has been boosted by work connected with the development of the new HS2 high speed rail project.
The company is carrying out water and environment studies in connection with the £32bn project – the north route of which was unveiled earlier this month.
In a trading update covering the period from October 1 last year, the company said: “The group continues to trade in line with our expectations and despite challenging conditions in a number of markets our outlook for the full year remains unchanged.
“Our UK business has performed well in the period. Our rail business is operating with improved utilisation as the signalling work won at the start of last year begins. Our water and environment business is busy with High Speed 2 work and AMP5 framework activity and our defence and aerospace businesses continue to grow.”
Elsewhere, it said its highways and transportation business had secured further design work, including upgrades to various sections of the M25.
“UK headcount has continued to increase, maintaining the momentum we experienced in the first half of the year,” it added.
It said trading in North America was challenging but the full-year outlook remained in line with expectations.
In the Middle East it said contract negotiations continued to be a protracted and challenging process which was impacting on the regional operation. Headcount has remained broadly flat during the period and it said it did not anticipate a material change in staffing levels from now through to the year end.
The Asia Pacific and Europe businesses are continuing to trade well in what it said were “solid markets”. This is expected to be reflected in a good second half margin performance.
In outlook it said: “The group’s geographic and sector diversification is providing resilience in challenging economic conditions and our overall outlook for the full year remains unchanged.”
The group will publish a pre-close trading update on April 10, 2013.
